SAP S/4HANA

The key advantages of these products are primarily the simplification of the system and elimination of the baggage of complex data structures created over the last 30 years. This aspect itself has a positive effect on the properties of new systems. It significantly increases their performance (e.g. when saving a financial document, data are recorded in one central finance table instead of being stored in more than a dozen separate tables, often redundantly).

In addition, the simplification of structures facilitates reporting. There is no need any more to combine data from multiple tables, taking into account exceptions from the combination rules in programs. A simple SQL query can quickly extract the required data from the system at a high level of detail, efficiently and online.

Another advantage of the new architecture is the reversal of the trend of separation of various products to individual SAP systems (e.g. a separate ERP system, a separate demand planning system APO, a separate warehouse management system EWM).

In the new architecture, many elements can be installed additionally in the ERP S/4HANA system as add-ons. Many of them are also included directly in the standard, which greatly simplifies administration, increases the system reliability and reduces the costs of hardware and configuration of interfaces.

S/4HANA includes also new features that were not available in previous versions. An example is a completely new module for cash management, SAP BPC planning integrated with the ERP system, new transactions for reporting line items, taking into account the aggregation of data when a report is being executed.

The SAP S/4HANA has received a completely new user interface in the form of the SAP Fiori application (HTML5).  In most cases, the user will be able to forget the old SAP GUI interface and switch to completely new transactions, not requiring the installation of special client software (using a browser).

Customers using the previous generation of ERP systems from SAP (ECC / SAP ERP) are offered migration to S/4HANA.

SAP S/4HANA can be deployed in the cloud or locally (S/4HANA on premise). As a cloud-based system, it is available in two editions:

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition – a rapid deployment based on industry-ready packages
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition – a deployment with a wide range of customizations